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Chapter 14 by Ovipositivity Ovipositivity

What do Teysa and Aliara do?

Tell her tough luck

"We can't just leave her, Li. It's not right." Teysa's voice grew more assured as she spoke. "We didn't ask for what happened to us, and she didn't either." Aliara bit her lip in frustration. "Tey, you can't be thinking of doing this! Where would we even go?! The best we could hope for is that when they catch us, they merely kill us, instead of putting us back up on the wall."

"Coward!" bellowed Devto. "You meekly submit to their boot on your neck! How is it that you walk around free, and yet you are such sheep?"

"It's not that, Devto." This voice was smooth and laconic. Teysa spun around. Anchored against the side wall, so fully wrapped that only her head was visible, was a human woman with short blonde hair and a spray of freckles across her cheeks. She stared contemptuously at Teysa's kimono. "Look at what she's wearing. She's working with them. She's their little pet."

The half-orc bellowed with indignation. "Is this true? Do you lay with them of your own free will? Vermin! K'tirg! Such foulness I never imagined!" Her resonant voice echoed across the chamber. Teysa could see some of the other bundles stirring. She looked back and forth between the two-- Aliara radiated fear, while Devto's expression was enraged. "I will not beg," the half-orc spat, "not from the likes of you."

Teysa desperately wanted to prove the half-orc wrong, but the rational part of her knew that this was foolishness. They would never make it out. She still had to free these women, but there was a better way. She nodded. "You're right, Li." She turned to Devto. "I'm sorry, but we can't. We'd never make it. We can ask the driders if they can make you more comfortable. Is there anything you want us to bring you? A robe?"
The half-orc spat. "You will ask? You serve these monsters?Whores! Spiders' sluts! You spread your legs for these demons, you filth! A thousand curses on you! **** on your mistress's venom, you cunts!"

Both women recoiled in shock from this outburst. Aliara shouted back defiantly, "Whatever you call us, you're the one whose womb is full of spider babies, you rotten cooze!" She grabbed Teysa's hand. "Let's get out of here, Tey. Let this bitch stew in her own juices a while."

The paladin allowed herself to be led out of the cave. She was a bit shaken. "Li, those things she said-"
"Forget it. Stupid bitch. In a place like this, you can't take on other people's troubles. You have to look out for yourself."
Teysa nodded. "You're right. That was a good call." She shivered. "I wish we could do something for her, though. I can't stand to see her suffer like that."

Their meandering had taken them to one of the nurseries. "Let's see the little ones!" cooed Aliara. "It's been a while. I want to see how they're coming along." Before they could duck inside, though, one of the servitor-driders in the gauzy black veils came rushing out, nearly colliding with them. She hissed rapidly in the drider dialect, then seeing their uncomprehension, wove the incantation of translation.

{you must come quickly. the matron summons/asks/requests you in her audience chamber. it is most urgent.}

Teysa stepped forward. "Slow down, slow down. We'll come. Let's go, Li."

They followed their guide through the tunnels, emerging in the large cavern where Teysa had first accepted the matron's challenge. The large drider sat atop her pillar now. She wore a curious garment-- something like a silk shawl that covered her shoulders and hung down her back. She made a complex gesture in the air as the two women arrived, then spoke.

"Clutchmotherssssss. I have need of hyour sssservice. It isssss a matter of some... delicacy. Will hyou aid the warren?"

"That depends on what you need," responded Teysa evenly.

"We do some trade with Yth'niel, the city of the drow. My mossssssst recent caravan hasssss not returned. The drow have a new empresssssss, and I fear she doesssss not ressspect the pact made by her predecesssssor with our kind. I cannot sssssend a drider to invessssstigate. It would be... unsssssubtle. I need hyou to go invessssstigate. Find out what hassss happened."

Do Teysa and Aliara accept?

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